December 20, 2016

Huge Video Ad Fraud Uncovered

I know, I know...I'm supposed to be on vacation. But this is just too delicious to let go.
For years fools like me have been warning advertisers and marketers
about the absurd amount of crime and fraud in online advertising. And,
of course, because marketers are smarter than everyone else, none of the
warnings have any effect.

According to the Pivotal Research Group, Methbot is responsible for...

- 200-300 million fraudulent video impressions a day
- $3-$5 million in criminal revenue a day
- More than $1 billion in annual revenue a year from fraudulent online video advertising

When
you realize that total US income from online video advertising will
only be $7 billion this year, you can see how enormous this fraud is.
Pivotal says,
"the scale of this single fraud is stunning."

And nobody knows how many other bots are out there.

According to Pivotal, here's how Methbot works...

"....it
is focused on programmatic video inventory and because of the way it
has fabricated both demand and supply of inventory. Among other details,
Methbot produces counterfeit premium publisher sites and generates
fraudulent ad calls that appear to originate from US-based internet
providers including Verizon, Comcast and Spectrum. Methbot then
generates revenue from
programmatic sources of demand seeking premium video inventory."

If you understand any of that, please drop me a post card.

So let's recap:

- The Association of National Advertisers says kickbacks and other corrupt activities among agencies is pervasive."

- The New York Times reports that about half of all online ads paid for are not viewable.

- The Guardian reports that 60-70% of online ad budgets are being scraped off by ad tech middlemen.

- Over 1/2 billion people have ad blockers installed on their online devices.

- The World Federation of Advertisers says that within 8 years
online ad fraud could be the second largest source of criminal revenue
in the world (after drug trafficking.)

- We know that online ad fraud is completely out of control and no one knows how large it is.

- We have just learned about the biggest online video ad fraud ever uncovered.

Yup, sounds like online advertising is just the thing for today's busy marketing moron.

You Are Caller Number...

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Ad Contrarian Says:

"Shakespeare was a storyteller. You're a copywriter.""Good ads appeal to us as consumers. Great ads appeal to us as humans."

"Social Media: Tens of millions of disagreeable people looking to make trouble."

"As an ad medium, the web is a much better yellow pages and a much worse television."

"Sometimes success in the advertising business requires sitting quietly and letting clients proceed with their hysterical delusions."

"Marketers prefer precise answers that are wrong to imprecise answers that are right."

"Brand studies last for months, cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and generally have less impact on business than cleaning the drapes."

"The idea that the same consumer who was frantically clicking her TV remote to escape from advertising was going to merrily click her mouse to interact with it is going to go down as one of the great advertising delusions of all time."

"Nobody really knows what "creativity" is. Every year thousands of people take a pilgrimage to find out. This involves flying to Cannes, snorting cocaine, and having sex with smokers."

"Marketers habitually overestimate the attraction of new things and underestimate the power of traditional consumer behavior."

"We don’t get them to try our product by convincing them to love our brand. We get them to love our brand by convincing them to try our product."

"In American business, there is nothing stupider than the previous generation of management."

"If the message is right, who cares what screen people see it on? If the message is wrong, what difference does it make?"

"The only form of product information on the planet less trustworthy than advertising is the shrill ravings of web maniacs."

"There's no bigger sucker than a gullible marketer convinced he's missing a trend."

"All ad campaigns are branding campaigns. Whether you intend it to be a branding campaign is irrelevant. It will create an impression of your brand regardless of your intent."

"Nobody ever got famous predicting that things would stay pretty much the same."